Many types of collaborative approaches are available to help advance land conservation.
Commission-based compensation for fundraising by staff and consultants, although legal, is widely viewed as a bad practice for nonprofits.
Email newsletters can help nonprofits better publicize their work and connect with supporters. This brief guide provides links to web articles that explain how to create effective email newsletters that engage, educate, and entertain your audience. Most of the resources focus specifically on nonprofit newsletters, though many of the strategies apply to newsletters for businesses as well.
Endowments and quasi-endowments help organizations establish long-term financial stability. This guide explains the basics; provides links to resources that address creating, managing, and fundraising for these funds; and describes the practices of 10 land trusts.
Interns can help nonprofit organizations to cost-effectively accomplish more. They also present a pathway for the organization to cultivate potential future employees and introduce new people to the field.
Investment of financial assets can provide a nonprofit with revenue and financial stability if accomplished thoughtfully and prudently. This brief guide provides hyperlinks to useful information regarding investment strategies, policies, management, and oversight.
The Land Trust Accreditation Commission offers outside verification that a land trust conforms with a key set of practices within Land Trust Standards and Practices. Accreditation is voluntary. A land trust should weigh the advantages of rigorous, external review against the opportunity costs of obtaining and maintaining accredited status.
The Land Trust Standards and Practices are widely accepted ethical and technical guidelines for the responsible operation of land trusts.
Land trusts and other nonprofits must occasionally relocate from one home base to another. Problematic consequences can be avoided with some simple planning and actions. This guide covers basic considerations and provides a checklist for communicating a change of address.
This handbook aids its users in navigating the decisions involved in establishing and operating local municipal open space programs. It reviews Pennsylvania’s legal framework for open space protection, including what municipalities may or must do under the law, as well as impermissible actions. It describes a multitude of considerations and practices with supporting examples from twenty Pennsylvania municipalities.
Some real property is substantially riskier than other property for an organization to hold and manage, perhaps because of environmental contamination (or suspicion of the same), perhaps because of more intense public use, perhaps for some other reason. Depending on just how great the perceived risk, the organization may want to consider isolating its exposure to that risk by establishing a separate organization—wholly controlled by the founding organization—to hold the riskier property.
Organizations can enhance and expand their conservation impact by using social media to engage new and existing supporters.
Organizations should be wary of draconian renewal clauses that are sometimes embedded in seemingly innocuous contracts. If an organization enters into a contract containing such a clause, the organization should have a management system in place to ensure that crucial dates for action are not missed.
Effectively recruiting, training, managing, and retaining volunteers can play a crucial role in helping a nonprofit organization accomplish its goals.